


Just a Nurse

by Curious



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Cancer, Castiel has cancer, Don't worry no one is dying, Multi, Nurse Dean, Supernatural - Freeform, i'm sure i'll add more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3357215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curious/pseuds/Curious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean is a nurse, not a doctor, or any hero, just a man who over works himself and loves it even when he hates it. But one day, he meets a cancer patient, fresh from Chemotherapy .</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Dean was a nurse, just a nurse. Not a doctor, not some hero, he's a man who's doing his job. And tonight he was at work, people everywhere, everyone that he turned to was demanding some meds, asking if this guy looked like an addict looking for an easy hit, or someone who needed help and he didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that the hospital that was starting to get slightly overrun this early on a weekend and the rumbling that went on in his stomach. He hasn't eaten in almost twelve hours, only because he just couldn't find the time for a snack when he took a quick nap.  
"It's your break, Winchester. Take it, I can hear your stomach from across the room." An intern said, some kid, he was new, only here a few months. "We can take it without you for ten minutes at the least."  
Dean furrowed his eyebrows at the kid, taking a glance at his badge on his scrubs. "Listen, Tran. I'll take care of myself. My break is in a minute anyway." He looked down at the clipboard with a patient's file.  
Intern Tran took the file from Dean. "Mr…..Shurley. I can take him off your hands for a few minutes while you eat." The kid insisted.  
"Why are you doing this?" Dean demanded, taking back his clipboard. "What do you want?"  
"Nothing. I'm just repaying you." He said. "You helped me out when I froze during rounds and the Chief of Medicine started yelling at me." He said and then Dean remembered.  
Dean helped the kid on his first day. Tran froze when the chief started asking questions and asked him how he was to treat someone with severe pneumonia, a word couldn't come out of his mouth when Dean came up to the chief and got his attention while Tran got his wits together.  
"I don't want any favors-" Dean started.  
Kevin took back the file. "Just go."  
Dean smiled down at his feet but looked back up serious. "Fine. Take it. I'm on break."  
He left, telling the nurses at the nurses station that he was taking his break now. Going into the cafeteria he got himself a tray and filled it up with all of the unhealthy, Debbie things and going to sit down after he paid.  
People chattered around him as he ate and the sound started to blur together. He didn't notice when a guy shuffled in, but he heard him when he stopped abruptly and started to gag, and soon followed vomit.  
Dean looked up and he rushed out of his seat and snatched a trash can, putting it under the mans mouth.  
He was deathly pale and sickly looking, with one of those hair loss caps one gets when they start losing their hair during chemotherapy, that's where this man is coming from.  
Dean stood there while the guy took hold of the can, Dean rubbed the space between the man's shoulders and waited for him to be done. When he was the man shook and wrapped his arms around the can as though his life depended on it.  
When he was finished the other nurse was giving him napkins to clean off his face. Dean gave her the 'I got it from here' nod, taking the rest of the napkins.  
"Why don't we sit you down, hmm?" Dean said to the man, leading him over to the chair that Dean was at, sitting the man down and wondering why the hell this guy was wandering around when he should be in bed.  
"Thank you, I am alright, I do not need any further assistance." The man said quietly he looked like he was concentrating on trying not to get sick again.  
"How long have you been in remission? You shouldn't be up and walking yet." Dean said calmingly, hoping that if the man focused on something.  
"An hour or two, I think. I'm sorry for your trouble." He tried to get up but he sat right back down, not ready to walk just yet.  
"You're tough, huh?" He smiled slightly, he was looking good, even for someone who got out of chemo. "What's your name?"  
"Castiel. I'd like- I'd like to go back to my room. Please." He asked, looking up from the garbage can to him.  
"No, problem." Dean turned around and saw the nurse that gave Castiel the napkins. "Nancy, can I have a wheelchair, please?" The nurse nodded leaving the room to fetch a wheelchair.  
He turned back to Castiel who was rubbing his throat with a look of disgust on his face. The man looked grossed out from what he had done, even though he had no control of it.  
"We're gonna get you back in bed in a minute. Just hold tight." Dean said, giving the man a reassuring nod. "Have you got any family or friends here with you today?"  
Castiel shook his head. "Not today, someone is bound to be here for me tomorrow, though." He didn't sound too sure on that.  
Dean nodded. "Okay." He heard Nancy behind him, putting down the brakes on the wheelchair and they helped Castiel into the chair, after Dean took the garbage can from him.  
"I can take him up, Dean." Nancy said. "I know where his room is. You can finish up- whatever it is you're eating here." She looked suspicious at him. "You high?" She asked quietly, Dean saw Castiel smirk at her comment.  
"No, Nancy, I'm not high. Just- Take him to his room, make sure his doctor is keeping their eye on him before he wanders around again and pukes up everywhere." The nurse nodded, starting to pull Castiel away.  
"Thank you, doctor." Castiel said giving Dean a slight nod.  
"I'm just a nurse." Dean correct as Castiel was pulled away.  
A janitor came by, picking up the mess and taking out the trash bag Castiel threw up in, putting a bright orange contamination bag around it.  
Dean was siting back in his seat and he was just looking at his food, the vomit didn't make him lose his appetite or anything, for some reason Castiel was in his head. He went walking around even though he ought to know he shouldn't be. He should have family or at least someone watching him.  
Castiel looked like crap, he looked miserable, and pale and sickly, but his eyes were bright, and they looked strong. Or was Dean just thinking so?  
Someone sat in the seat in front of him and Dean looked up, expecting it to be one of the nurses or maybe a doctor, but it wasn't either.  
"Shouldn't you have been off by now? Do you ever go home or what?" Sam asked.


	2. It's All in His Hands

"Shouldn't you have been off by now? Do you ever go home or what?" Sam asked as he sat down his piles of files and papers.  
"I'm working overtime, a guys gotta pay his dues." Dean answered, picking up one of the Swiss Rolls on his tray, opening it and taking a generous bite from it.  
"Dean what are you eating? Did a Little Debbie truck explode on your tray, what is this?" Sam asked, pushing around the sweets, picking one up. "You're a nurse, don't know these things are gonna kill you."  
"That, Sammy, is a Zebra Cake, and that's the way I wanna go." He snatched the pack from his brother's hands. "I wanna die because of Zebra Cakes."  
Sam rolled his eyes, loosening his tie lightly, trying to feel comfortable in the hospital, Sammy never did like them, he couldn't even fathom why Dean worked in one. It was just something that they worked past.  
Dean looked at his little brother, in a suit and tie that was probably worth three months of Dean's rent. Dean knew he worked hard for it, he was a damn good lawyer at that, but he had an ego around him, something that he never had before, but that was fine, people changed and Dean understood that.  
"So, why are you here? Who's getting sued?" Dean inquired.  
"Dean, Attorney-Client Confidentiality. I can't say." Sam replied. "It's not a big thing, it's just a small case, it will probably only take a week or so for it to end anyway."  
"C'mon, I'm gonna find out anyway, let your brother in-"  
"Dean look, I'm not going to tell you, that's not how it works." Sam said.  
"Fine, I'll Ask someone later." He muttered. "So what are you doing nowadays, suing people? How's the folks?"  
"Dean, I-"  
"-Haven't been around for awhile I have a job. Yeah, I know. But did the robbing and stuff end?"  
"Yes, the desecration stopped the boys at cause are spending time in jail."  
"Did they-?"  
"No, their graves are fine."  
Dean sighed with relief at that, he would be damned if something happened to their graves. He remembered his parents, his father was alright, he did have his bad times but he missed his mother most. As Dean was going to school for being a nurse, his mother only smiled, she only said good things about his choices.  
He remembered when he started at the hospital, he started in the spring and he remembered his mom was in the garden. She said that he always had a knack for helping people, it was in his blood and she knew it since he was a toddler. She told Dean not to listen to listen to their father when he said that he should have been a doctor if he was going to medical. He said it was a woman's job and that he might as well throw on a skirt and two braids to complete his look.  
Dean didn't listen, in fact to his disliking Dean didn't visit in two months before he had a feeling that he needed to see them, that day Dean had watched a woman, all alone die because her family wasn't close enough to get there on time before she passed. The woman was elderly, and she talked about her life before she died, with Dean at her side when the last breath passed her lips and Dean took it hard. It was after all his first death, and he held her hand throughout it.  
He blamed his wanting to see them on that, the next day on a foggy morning they were in a car crash along the highway, a semi had lost control and the breaks broke and it ran into them, killing them on impact.  
"Dean? Are you even listening to me?" Sam said, breaking Dean's train of thought.  
"What? Yeah, I'm listening I was just thinking of mom and pops that's all." He had always blamed himself for their accident. It was because of him they were on the road, Sam knew this.  
"You didn't have anything to do wi-"   
Sam was interrupted by Dean's beeper, looking down at it he froze. A man was coding on the third floor. The floor that was what was known as the cancer hall.  
"Wait here, Sammy, I got to go." He said dropping his food and rushing to the stairs only because the elevator was a little too slow and he had to go up. He ran, his breath quickening and he could only think that it was that blue eyed man.  
Dean learned that there are times where you meet a patient and you just like them. You become determined to make them better, to make them smile, to make sure that they're okay even though there would be no chance of meeting that person outside of these hospital walls. You just want them to be better and god damn it nothing will stop you.  
Castiel was one of those people. It had happened a couple of times before. Once before when it was a young boy and Dean saw a lot of himself in him.  
Dean continued to run, bursting through the doors and he saw the nurses and Doctors there, trying to force the seizing man down and he couldn't see past the little crowd of people, he could feel people brush up against his arms, trying to see what was happening too.  
Dean didn't want that Castiel to go, he didn't even have anyone with him, no family he sounded like he couldn't depend on.  
"Does anyone know who that is?" He asked, he felt a little out of breath but he didn't bother in trying to regulate it.  
No one answered him, he watched as the seizing went on, no one but the Doctors and the nurses at the bed. He heard the heart monitor, beating like crazy and he knew if it continued on that track it would stop.  
This went on for sometime, at least it felt that way. Dean managed to move around the room so he could see what was happening in the sea of nurses and crowding people and he saw tan skin that had a sickly white look to it. It looked like the man he met that day. His heart fell and he couldn't bear to stay but his feel felt stuck. He knew that he should stay here, if the man was going to die here and without family, Dean could stay. It would make him feel as though the man did have someone with him, in a way. It was the only thing he could do, he couldn't run into the circle and try to help when there are already so many people.  
Dean waited and waited and the last thing he or any one else in the room wanted to hear was the flat line.  
Dean's heart fell. He felt like he stepped out of his body and was looking in from somewhere else. He saw someone try to start up the electrical cardioversion, but the doctor said no. "Just let him go, he wasn't going to make it anyway, we all knew that."  
Dean watched as the crowd began to move and Nancy, the one who brought the wheelchair announced '2:42 PM' the time of death.  
someone walked up to Dean as he watched the crowd clear without really watching.  
"That was Thomas Andrew. Everyone else called him Two Names because his first and last names sounded like first names." A voice said.  
In a moment he felt like he snapped back into his body, his heart came back from the floor back to his chest when he recognized the voice.  
"You should be in bed." Dean said while turning around and looking at Castiel, who looked as though a little colour came back into his face, but his eyes were a little dark.  
"And you should be home. That nurse, Nancy, informed me you have been working over twelve hours. I suppose we're both doing something others don't recommend." He replied.  
"Did you know him?" Dean asked, nudging his arm to wordlessly get him to go back to bed which worked because he started to shuffle back to his section of the room.  
"I talked to him a few times, he talked a lot about his family and how he'd be seeing them real soon, and how his daughter was going to be happy to see him when he gets there." Castiel said. Dean fault a little bad that he was a little happy ti wasn't Castiel in that bed but someone else. But he did feel bad about it.  
"When was his daughter coming?" Dean inquired so he could remember the name if she comes so he could tell her the news or at least direct her to the right direction.  
"Heather, but she died when she was five."  
"His dead daughter was going to visit?" Dean was a little confused by this point, but perhaps what was happening to this Thomas Andrew affected his thought process.  
"No, she's in heaven, he knew he was going to die, he had accepted it last night, he prayed all night to, adding us all to his prayers. He even said your name." Castiel sat in his bed, pulling his legs up onto the thin mattress.  
"Me?" Dean went right back into being confused. He had never met the man before.  
"He said Winchester. That's all I know."  
Dean sat in the chair next to Castiel's bed. "So Nancy told you about me?" He asked, intertwining his hands on his stomach as he leaned back in the chair.  
"Yes, she said you're a man, living by himself who has nothing better to do other than work his life off." He said. "She said, that you were the best and worst man to work with and she can't fathom why you became a nurse but you are very good at your job."  
"So nice things?" He replied.  
"Generally yes. Then she talked quite angrily about how you eat sweets all the time and it is like you never leave, then she tried to give me your number in case if someone doesn't come for me tomorrow." Castiel handed Dean a piece of paper which had his number on it. Taking it and shoving it in his pocket as fast as he could, he cleared as he did so.  
"Where is your family, someone should be here with you after all you're going home in what? Little under four hours?" He said.  
"I can get a taxi or something." He said. "My family have their own lives that's all."  
Dean sat there as they went quiet.   
"Thomas Andrew was a very good man, I do hope he does see his daughter again." Castiel said, changing the topic back to the man.  
Dean didn't believe in god. But he knew that a lot of people who came through the hospital's doors have their faith weak or on their sleeve because it helps them get though whatever is happening to them. "Yeah?" Dean replied, it seemed to be the only thing he could even reply with.  
"Yes. But it is God's hands now."  
"Well what isn't in God's hands is how you're going to get home. Do you need a ride?" He asked.  
"I wouldn't want to bother a perfect stranger with my transportation needs. I will find a way home wither it be by taxi or walking on foot." He insisted.  
"It's gross out there, and if you get in a taxi you'll be sure to contract something and with your immune system damaged then you'll just be right back in that bed and I don't think you like being in it much." Dean insisted. "Look here I'll just leave you my number. He pulled back out the slip and sat it on the bedside table, on top of what looked like to be his clothes. "Call me, if you need me."  
"I can't ask you to do that for me, I don't live close by." Castiel insisted.  
"Don't worry, I like to go the extra mile for someone, and hey, I'll be taking an extra few." He laughed at his own joke but when Castiel didn't return it he cleared his throat. "Just in case, and hey, you can put it up somewhere so maybe when you have the time we can get a coffee or something." He said, walking out of the room and grabbing hold of the curtains. "Don't worry about it, Cas. If you need a ride I can give it to you it doesn't matter to me, just as long as you get home safe that's all I care about."  
"Thank you." Castiel smiled a little, looking up at Dean, with the look in his eyes that made Dean knew he'd see him again.   
Dean closed the curtains and mad his way out of the room, to go back downstairs, say goodbye to Sam, check out, then go home which wasn't far from here at all. Literally only a few minutes away. His mind was on Castiel again, his smile and his eyes and he shook his head. He was tired and Castiel was a patient here and it wouldn't be right.  
"I'm going home Sammy." He said when he got back to Sam after he checked out and everything. "I'm gonna catch some Z's."  
"Take it easy, Dean."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been trying to do this for a few days and I just wanted to finish this chapter off so that's why it's the way it is. But nonetheless there will be more actual destiel stuff later on. I just wanted to do something or try to kick-start something to happen.  
> Enjoy


End file.
